KRA Launches Ushuru Mashinani to Boost Grassroots Tax Awareness Nationwide

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has launched Ushuru Mashinani, a nationwide grassroots programme designed to sensitise communities about tax services, removing the distance barrier that kept many from complying.

Launched on March 26, KRA describes the initiative as a move to enhance basic tax service delivery, including registration, filing, and payment, by partnering with local businesses that already have computers and reliable internet access in their areas.

“Ushuru Mashinani is a KRA initiative aimed at enhancing the delivery of basic tax services, such as Registration, Filing, and Payment to the taxpayers across the country by partnering with businesses that have a computer and internet access,” stated KRA.

The services in this initiative are the usual KRA services but, in a broader but simpler perspective, cover PIN registration and retrieval, nil return filing, Tax Compliance Certificate applications, eTIMS digital training, and waiver applications for outstanding penalties and accumulated interest charges.

With this initiative, mobile tax units are at the heart of the programme, with KRA intending to deploy teams to towns and villages across all 47 counties to offer on-site assistance in settings that feel accessible and familiar.

These mobile units, as per KRA, complement Huduma Centres and existing regional offices, filling service gaps in areas where formal KRA access points are either absent entirely or simply too far for most residents to reach.

Beyond logistics, the programme introduces what it calls Ushuru Conversations, informal community sessions where KRA officers break down taxes in simple and plain language, mostly vernacular, and address the fears and misconceptions that have long kept Kenyans at arm’s length.

For this initiative to work, KRA, through its communication channels, developed registration forms for individuals to complete. The form consists of filler areas such as the Applicant’s name, Business Name/Trading Name, Phone Number, Email Address, KRA PIN, Business Location/Building, Town/Area, County, and ICT Infrastructure, including a computer, internet, and a printer.

This initiative comes as the KRA March 2026 data reveals that the country has only over 22 million registered taxpayers, yet only around 7 million actively pay taxes. The majority of these are formal-sector employees who contribute through Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

Of the active taxpayers, approximately 3.2 million are formally employed, while the remainder comprises self-employed individuals and firms. 

KRA Commissioner for the Micro and Small Taxpayers Department (MST) George Obell, in an interview with Classic 105 on March 24, revealed that  KRA aims to expand the active taxpayer base to 11.5 million by June 2027.  This initiative, as Commissioner Obell noted, is one of the strategies to expand this tax base.

“And we are looking to make it easy for Kenyans. We should start having a culture of people filing consistently. So as KRA, we are moving closer to the people to top the number of fillers. So we are coming up with new elements, sensitisation. Because there are many people who don’t know this,” stated Commissioner Obell.